St Nikolaus Tag

Tomorrow it St Nikolaus Tag. It's a German tradition where, before children go to bed, they set out their boots in front of their bedroom door (originally it was in front of their house) and leave a paper within the opening of one of the boots with a list of what they'd like for Christmas.
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In the morning when they awake, and if they've been good, they find nuts, an orange, maybe an apple, christmas chocolates, and a candy cane in place of their special list. If they've been bad, well, then they recieve a lump of coal. Fortunately, we haven't had any of that in our home yet.


All this was explained because, below you will see that Ethan is quite prepared for this event.


Apparantly, he derived such a list making idea from an article from the Friend magazine where a boy, earlier in the story, told about how his list was "as long as his arm". (Later on he is taught that giving is better than getting.)

We realized this when we heard Ethan say, "My list is longer than my arms!"

Hmmmmm. I think we've got some workin' to do.
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Venting...

It would have been nice to receive that phone call, my sister and I both urged our parents to make, letting us know our daughter's made it safely to their destination....even if it is 2am.

I awoke at 2am thinking, "they should be calling shortly." At about 2:30 I began to worriedly drift off to sleep. I awoke on the hour at 3:30, 4:30, 5:30 and didn't get much sleep after that. "Why hadn't they called?" I saw visions of a plane plummeting into the dark ocean, I saw Tyra homesick and wanting to call me, but, for whatever reason couldn't, and I saw my parents comfortably talking away (and laughing) with family while I lie in my bed wondering if my daughter still lives...

I called my dad's shop at 8:30 and asked my sister, who answered the phone, if she'd heard from my parents. She had in fact and everything was "just fine." Well, suffice it to say, it wasn't "just fine" in my book! Apparently Tyra and her cousin Alyssa completely conked out after the plane ride and are in a deep sleep. . . that doesn't mean my parents couldn't call though and at least let us worried mother's know that all is well!

I was ready to give them a lecture...until I found out that the reason my sister had talked to them so early this morning is to let them know that "someone" had crashed my mom's car this morning.

Well, maybe that wouldn't have happened if they would have been faithful to their duties and called me last night. :)

I think I'll spare them the lecture.

(Call me ... pathetic, but I left Tyra's breakfast plates, just the way she left it before she left, all day yesterday.)

Glenn Beck Article, Tyra Leaves

As I traveled to one of Glenn Beck's speeches, 6 months or so ago, saying, "Glenn who?", I was hesitant about going and, fighting through traffic, I heavily considered turning around and going back home. But the experience I had by being there, the feeling that was there, the words that were spoken, the songs that were sung, and the spirit that was there made it an experience I'll always remember. It was an awakening.

Although Glenn has his own talk show on the radio I tend to only read his talks every now and then. I decided I'm going to start sharing the one's that I feel necessary to share with others through this blog.

So, here's one I feel all should read.

This isn't going to be a place to argue whether we believe him or not. One can believe whatever they want to and choose to be offended or not. . . so, take it for what it's worth.

Tyra has left to Germany.

Tyra left to Germany at four this morning. As I write she's flying over the US. (yikes!)

We'll really miss her but hope she'll remember forever, and look back upon with fond feelings, the experiences she'll have.
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